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Define insecure/secure. I know that if a popup tells me I can get free cat screensavers at 'randomwebsitewitharandomname.com', it's most likely fake and might

Define insecure/secure. I know that if a popup tells me I can get free cat screensavers at 'randomwebsitewitharandomname.com', it's most likely fake and might have a virus attached. I don't download it and my system is 'secure'. However, if I don't know it's fake (i.e., I'm not experienced with computers at all,) I might download it. Now my system is insecure. Whoopee. You could say that a system is only secure if it can catch things like that before it's too late. The problem there is that Windows, like other OSes, does not come with any anti-virus program built into the system itself (I'm excluding security measures built into Windows as this doesn't fully protect it.) Windows is only secure from viruses when an antivirus program is used. Of course, that doesn't make other systems safe. Just because Mac and GNU/Linux viruses are rare doesn't mean it's secure. This mentality is 'security by unpopularity'. The real argument is in how these systems would protect themselves from viruses that actually ran on them if those viruses were as prevalent as Windows viruses and the systems were used as much as Windows. On that, we can only speculate. My point is that I'm only secure if I know what I'm doing; software is not built to replace common sense

pnathan 15y ago
* I'm only secure if I know what I'm doing; software is not built to replace common sense* That's an excellent and succinct statement of security; can I use that line?
- Mithrandir 15y ago
  Haha, sure!
bad_user 15y ago
I once installed Windows XP on a machine that got compromised in the first 20 minutes just because I forgot to unplug the network cable while installing it -- although I wasn't prepared for offline updating anyway. When a machine gets compromised by just being connected to a network, that's pretty bad and I sure hope Windows 7 is a lot better.
- harisenbon 15y ago
  You were doing a fresh install (no SP) of a 10 year-old operating system (xp) on an infected network and you were surprised you got compromised? Now, XP is first of all, not a great standard in security practices. But without any security updates, on a platform that hackers have had 10 years to find exploits to? If you installed that on an infected network, I'd be surprised if you didn't get compromised.
  - bad_user 15y ago
    No, it was SP2. And I don't get why you're trying to justify this -- a fresh install should never get compromised by just being connected to a network. Yes, I can install 10-year old versions of other operating systems just fine.

pnathan 15y ago

* I'm only secure if I know what I'm doing; software is not built to replace common sense* That's an excellent and succinct statement of security; can I use that line?

Mithrandir 15y ago
Haha, sure!

bad_user 15y ago

I once installed Windows XP on a machine that got compromised in the first 20 minutes just because I forgot to unplug the network cable while installing it -- although I wasn't prepared for offline updating anyway. When a machine gets compromised by just being connected to a network, that's pretty bad and I sure hope Windows 7 is a lot better.

harisenbon 15y ago
You were doing a fresh install (no SP) of a 10 year-old operating system (xp) on an infected network and you were surprised you got compromised? Now, XP is first of all, not a great standard in security practices. But without any security updates, on a platform that hackers have had 10 years to find exploits to? If you installed that on an infected network, I'd be surprised if you didn't get compromised.
- bad_user 15y ago
  No, it was SP2. And I don't get why you're trying to justify this -- a fresh install should never get compromised by just being connected to a network. Yes, I can install 10-year old versions of other operating systems just fine.